The GQ 30 Most Influential Young Indians In Association With The Glenlivet Glassware

They're setting trends and disrupting norms. They are driving innovation, pushing boundaries, and affecting change. They are entrepreneurs, cultural stars, and tech titans who are shaping the way we live, work, and play. They include the director of India's first silent queer film, the co-founder of the world's highest-valued edtech start-up, and an exciting batter tipped to be a future national captain. Here's presenting GQ's 2022 new establishment list, featuring a set of young, original achievers who reflect the best of India's youth and a dynamic economy on the rise.

- Arman Khan, Arun Janardhan, Saumyaa Vohra, Nidhi Gupta, Parth Charan, Jamie Alter, And Bhanuj Kappal

SHUBMAN GILL

Cricketer

The talent, like with countless young Indian batsmen over the decades, was not in doubt. The temperament was. Could this technically gifted batsman cut it at the highest level? Having ticked off every conceivable box on his way to a Test debut for India at 21– including, strikingly, the player of the series award as the country's victorious display at the 2018 Under-19 Cricket World Cup-Shubman Gill dazzled in his first series in Australia, which included a momentum-shifting 91 in that Brisbane epic. A batting average of 51.80 from three Tests at his first calling underlined what the fuss was about.

Since then, some poor judgement around off stump and a couple of injuries have set him back, but Gill is clearly one for the future and regarded, albeit in whispers, as a potential India captain. He is that rare all-format batsman who can open as well as bat in the middle order, and with a level head on his shoulders, the signs are ominous. Gill is 22, and with this much talent it is a matter of when, and not whether, he scores his first hundred for the country.

After a somewhat lean IPL 2021 for the Kolkata Knight Riders, Gill has slotted in well, opening the innings for new entrants Gujarat Titans in 2022 for whom he has twice narrowly missed out on scoring T20 hundreds in the span of four days.

Grounded but with a natural appeal that the camera lens can feast on, and equally at ease in a designer suit as he is in the latest athletic wear, the dapper puttar is on his way to becoming a generational icon, both on and off the field.

PRATEEK KUHAD

Musician